A view of ONGC’s advanced drilling rig. File
| Photo Credit: @lg_ladakh X/ANI
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) would reserve half of its 1.75 million metric tonnes (MMT) oil storage facility in Mangaluru as strategic storage, Suresh Gopi, Minister of State in the Union Petroleum Ministry told the Upper House on Monday (August 3, 2026).
Mr. Gopi also informed the rest of the capacity would be available for commercial usage.
“ONGC is developing a strategic petroleum reserve facility of 1.75 MMT capacity at Mangaluru. 50% of this storage will be reserved as strategic storage and rest of the capacity will be available to ONGC for commercial operations,” he told Parliament.
The project would be entirely funded by the state-owned explorer.
Separately, Mr. Gopi also told the house of elders that India’s current storage capacity for crude oil and petroleum products can meet 74 days of its net crude import requirements.
He also stated that the government had chalked plans to build storage capacity of 6.5 MMT.
This is inclusive of 4 MMT capacity in Odisha’s Chandikhol, Odisha and Karnataka’s Padur.
Specifically, on Chandikhol, he stated, “The estimated project cost is about ₹9,000 crores. The draft RFP and Concession Agreement for the project are being finalized.”
Published – August 03, 2026 06:28 pm IST
